So a division occurred in the crowd because of [Jesus]. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?”

“I know your insides are feeling so hollow, and it’s a hard pill for you to swallow, but if I fall for you, I’ll never recover, I’ll never be the same. I really wanna love somebody, I really wanna dance the night away. I really wanna touch somebody, I think about you every single day. I know we’re only half way there, but you can take me all the way. I don’t know where to start, I’m just a little lost, asking you to stay.”  

One of the most difficult aspects of growing for an older adolescent and "twenty-something" is the act of developing love relationships, and ultimately choosing one of them for marriage. It is not easy because every one of us have different ways of doing things and different ways of acting that we have learned from our backgrounds. Everyone's personality is very different, and struggling to allow our own personality to mesh with another is indeed quite difficult.

The group Maroon 5 brings it out very well in their song "Love Somebody." They explain it in terms of hollow feelings that they feel and the hesitance of speaking "commitment-type" words like "never" and "every." They sum it up with the thought that when people are only developing love relationships, then they are only "half way there" in their love. That is, they are not quite there yet, and one is led to believe that in order to get "all the way," the couple will have to spend time and energy to get there. The official video presents the same thing in video very well, acting out the fact that being completely "whole" never really occurs as the love develops.

Searching the Gospels for the same feeling, one finds a number of people who were attracted to the personality and thought of Jesus Christ, but needed time and patience to develop it. Nicodemus was one of them. He had come to Jesus only at night, no doubt a little afraid of what his fellow Pharisees might think of him. Then after the initial fear, he finally worked up the courage to defend him as he and his fellow Pharisees were discussing what to do concerning his ministry. It takes time to develop any type of love relationship.

The lesson is absolutely necessary for our modern world in which too many love relationships fall apart in bitterness and hatred. Modern man and woman must spend time and patience as we develop our love relationships with one another. If we manage to consider our developing love relationships as "half way there," we will always be cautious about the possibility of saying words like "forever" or "never leaving another."

And when it comes time to say those commitment-type words, we will mean them.   

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, it is difficult to develop true love in today's world because of our individual feelings. Therefore, we need your help as we do it. Give us the grace to understand how to love well. Be with us, we pray. 

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Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America